"What Kind of Soap Does Your Skin Need? How to Find the Right Soap for Your Skin Type."

This article is a guide to help answer a question most people do not ask themselves. What kind of soap does my skin need? In order to know that, you first need to know your skin type.

Skin Types Very Briefly:

Normal Skin-Normal skin is balanced and healthy, with an even tone and texture, and it's not too dry or oily. It's soft and supple, with small pores that aren't very visible, and it's not usually prone to breakouts, flakiness, or blemishes. Normal skin is also not typically sensitive to normal external stimulation. 

Oily Skin-Oily skin, also known as seborrhea, is a common skin type that occurs when the body's sebaceous glands produce too much sebum, an oily substance that helps the skin function. This can cause the skin to look shiny and feel greasy, and can lead to other issues like acne, enlarged pores, and clogged pores. 

Dry Skin-Dry skin is a common skin type that can affect people of all ages and genders. It's characterized by skin that feels dry, rough, or itchy, and may look flaky or scaly. Dry skin can also feel tight or less elastic, and may be more prone to showing fine lines. 

Sensitive Skin-Sensitive skin is a skin type that's more likely to react to stimuli than normal skin. It can feel uncomfortable and appear red, dry, or itchy. People with sensitive skin may also experience unpleasant sensations like stinging, burning, or tingling in response to things like temperature changes, wind, UV, or harsh products.

Combination Skin-Combination skin is a common skin type that has two or more different skin types on the face. It's characterized by areas of oily skin and areas of dry skin on the same skin surface. The oily areas are usually in the T-zone, which includes the forehead, nose, and chin, while the dry areas are usually around the U-zone, which includes the cheeks, mouth, and eyes. 

Lifestyle Considerations

Once you have nailed down your skin type, the next step is to take your lifestyle into consideration. A construction worker that has dry skin would require something different from say a receptionist in an office with the same issue. So consider how much dirt, air pollutants, bacteria and viruses your skin may be exposed to on a daily basis. This is especially important as your skin's natural oils (sebum) serves to improve the skins barrier function and traps contaminants and bacteria for removal and disposal by your immune system (This is why dry skin is also more prone to infection).

Soap Characteristics and Ingredients

So now with the aforementioned knowledge lets discuss certain soap characteristics. A very general rule for soap is the bigger and bubblier the lather the more deep cleaning action the soap has (think about dish and laundry detergent).

Deeper cleansing soaps could be especially beneficial for oily and acne prone skin and accomplishes quite a few things here are just 2 of them:

1. Thoroughly remove oil, dirt, bacteria and viruses that may be trapped deeper in the skin which could lead to acne breakouts.

2. Allows for soap additives and post shower skincare products to have a better effect on the skin. This is due to more of the skin's sebum being trapped (while soap lather is on your skin) then stripped away and allows for easier absorption of nutrients. Because of the aforementioned reasons, if you use soap with more cleaning action, your skin should feel more bare and breathable. This does, however, remove some of the skin's barrier function and may make the skin more prone to harmful bacteria takeover of the skin's natural microbiome (in cases of sensitive or dry skin with the use of anti bacterial and especially deep cleaning soaps).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have soaps with a creamier lather with less pronounced or smaller bubbles. These soaps often provide a gentle cleansing, more conditioning bar of soap with a weaker cleansing action in order to strip away less of the skin's oil.

For sensitive or dry skin this is especially beneficial and allows quite a few benefits here are just 2 of them:

1. Assist the skin in maintaining its healthy natural balance. They generally remove a very thin layer of the bodies natural oils and microbiome, therefore not upsetting sensitive skin.

2. For people with dry skin, allows the skin to maintain the most of the sebum it does produce and minimize drying.

If you use a soap with gentler cleaning action , your skin should feel moist and supple. This is because only a very thin layer of the skins natural oils have been stripped away. As stated before, sebum does trap and hold dirt, bacteria and viruses. Because of this, people with dry and sensitive skin need to take special care to protect their skin throughout the day in order to minimize the accumulation of such skin contaminants.

The general rule is just that , general. There are plenty of ways to change the formulation of all natural soaps to get a conditioning gentle soap with a nice sized lather. Like wise, powerful cleansing soaps with huge lather can be formulated to have conditioning properties as well. With plenty of formulations that provide a very large variety of balances in between.

All natural soaps are naturally at least 25% glycerin. This is especially good for dry skin as glycerin is a humectant. Humectants draws water into the skin from its surface such as in a shower. They can also draw water from deeper portions of the skin up to the dryer layers. Humectants like glycerin essentially causes the skin to hydrate itself more efficiently. This allows the skin feel better moisturized even in the case of using a deeper cleansing soap that may have removed more of the skin's natural oils.

The all natural soaps that I personally craft have a range of cleaning action levels and should have the recommended skin types based on cleaning action in the product description. Also, certain essential oils used in my soaps (Specifically Lavender and Peppermint) have also been known to have antimicrobial effects which could be especially beneficial to acne prone skin as well. Just be sure that when you select you soap, keep YOUR skin's needs in mind before you purchase.

In the next article, we will discuss proper moisturizing of skin which should be accomplished immediately after cleaning.